1. Wide variability was found for horticultural and yield traits in cauliflower germplasm from mid hills of Himachal Pradesh. This will help breeders develop high yielding varieties. 2. The experiment evaluated 20 diverse cauliflower genotypes and found high heritability and genetic gain for curd size index, leaf number, gross weight, and curd depth, making them good selection criteria. 3. Cluster analysis separated the genotypes into four clusters with the maximum distance between clusters I and IV, indicating their genetic diversity. Promising genotypes identified were EC-683466, Hermia, Pant Shubhra.

1. Genetic variability studies in mid late and late cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L.) germplasm
Subhrajyoti Chatterjeea, H S Kanwarb and Partha Choudhuria
Debmala Mukherjeea, Swadesh Banerjeea and Arup Chattopadhyaya
aDepartment of Vegetable Science, Faculty of Horticulture
Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur-741252, Nadia, West Bengal, India
bDepartment of Vegetable Science, College of Horticulture
Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni -173230, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India
Introduction
Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis), an important member in the family Brassicaceae, is the most popular and widely grown ‘Cole’ vegetable crop in
India particularly in cool season. India is the second leading country in terms of area of cultivation and total production of cauliflower in the world. A substantial
amount of protein, carbohydrate, phosphorus and ascorbic acid is present in the curd. It also contains a significant amount of glycoalkaloid.
Objective
1. To estimate the extent of variability
for horticultural and yield traits.
2. To study the association of
horticultural traits with yield in
cauliflower germplasm.
3. To determine direct and indirect
contribution of various components
through path coefficient analysis.
4. To study the genetic distance between
two populations for number of traits
by genetic divergence .
Methodology
Characters
rg with
marketable
yield/plant
rp with
marketable
yield/plant
Direct effects on
marketable
yield/plant at
Phenotypic level
Days to marketable
curd maturity
0.974** 0.849** 0.37683
Stalk length 0.312** 0.309** -0.90811
Leaf number per
plant
0.311** 0.298** 0.99517
Leaf size index - 0.834* - 0.791* 0.36342
Curd depth 0.911** 0.892** 0.16452
Curd size index 0.957** 0.939** 0.41164
Plant height 0.976** 0.826** 0.37108
Curd solidity 0.844** 0.825** 0.14083
Gross weight per
plant
0.978** 0.972** -0.13338
Characters P.C.V (%) G.C.V(%)
H2 (%)
in b.s.
GA
GG
(%)
Days to
marketable curd
maturity
14.93 13.02 76.06 27.26 23.39
Stalk length 10.26 10.17 98.16 1.08 20.76
Leaf number per
plant
20.03 19.12 91.51 5.98 37.61
Leaf size index 20.45 19.44 90.38 323.28 38.08
Curd depth 17.01 15.76 85.91 2.87 30.10
Curd size index 27.06 26.51 95.99 79.40 53.51
Plant height 24.60 20.85 71.84 18.41 36.41
Curd solidity 14.20 12.56 78.22 17.23 22.89
Gross weight per
plant
19.77 19.56 97.88 515.78 39.87
Marketable yield
per plant
18.71 18.63 99.15 273.11 38.21
Table 1: Estimates of genetic parameters of cauliflower germplasm
❑ Wide variability has been found in different horticultural traits of mid late and late
cauliflower genotypes grown in mid hills of Himachal Pradesh.
❑ This information will provide breeders with the ability to develop desirable types having
high yield.
Genotypes
DMCM SL
(cm)
LNPP
LSI
(cm2)
CD
(cm)
CSI
(cm2)
PH
(cm)
CS
(g/ cm)
GWPP
(g)
MYPP
(g)
Hermia 140.55 6.04 21.55 587.26 12.09 177.37 55.88 74.99 1761.33 906.67
EC-683466 137.95 5.90 17.99 636.02 10.01 176.74 51.13 89.59 1711.67 890.33
Pant
Shubhra
134.54 5.13 16.22 633.57 12.82 180.29 51.17 67.30 1572.00 857.53
Sel-II 131.71 4.70 12.33 662.74 12.09 168.85 52.13 70.15 1540.00 846.67
EC-162587 129.59 5.16 15.44 683.91 10.62 182.42 43.76 78.27 1456.67 824.87
Table 2. Quantitative characterization of mid late and late cauliflower genotypes
DMCM= Days to marketable maturity, SL= Stalk length, LNPP= Leaf no/ plant, LSI=
Leaf size index, CD= Curd depth, CSI= Curd size index, PH= Plant height, CS= Curd
solidity, GWPP= Gross weight/ plant, MYPP= Marketable yield/ plant.
❑ The experiment was laid out in RCBD
with three replications comprising of twenty
diverse genotypes of cauliflower including
PSBK-I as check variety.
❑ The mean data obtained were used for
determining genotypic and phenotype co-
efficient of variation, heritability in broad
sense, expected genetic advance and genetic
gain. The correlation coefficients at
genotypic and phenotypic levels were also
calculated.
❑The path coefficient analysis and genetic
divergence study were also done.
Figure 1: Dendogram of genotypes depicting cluster pattern
Clusters I II III IV
I 1.086
II 4.151 1.291
III 3.456 4.175 1.398
IV 6.496 3.191 5.238 2.091
Promising cauliflower genotypes
EC-683466
Hermia Pant Shubhra
Table 4: Average inter and intra cluster difference
Table 3: Correlation and path analysis of different characters of
cauliflower genotypes
✓ High heritability coupled with high genetic gain was
found for the trait curd size index, whereas high estimates
of heritability with medium genetic gain were found in the
traits like leaf number per plant, gross weight per plant,
marketable yield per plant, curd depth and leaf size index.
✓ From the combing study of GCV, PCV, heritability,
genetic advance, correlation and path coefficient,
characters namely, curd size index, gross weight per plant,
curd depth and leaf number per plant were found to be the
most important selection indices of cauliflower.
✓The maximum inter cluster difference was found in
between cluster I and IV.
Conclusion
Results
Presented at National Conference on “Food and nutritional security through vegetable crops in relation to climate change” held on December 09-11, 2017 at ICAR- IIVR, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
After transplanting phase Full erect leaves 65 days after transplanting